On The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Peopleby Stephen R.Covey

This book is a surprise: an inspirational self-empowerment book that isn't
a complete pile of fluff. Maybe I'm just at that stage in life where one
begins to appreciate self-help books, but I don't think so; I think this
one really is head and shoulders better than the others. That's not to say
that it is completely fluffless; Covey's ideas are all couched in phraseology
with the texture if not the smell of fluffdom. But the ideas themselves are
worth putting up with the nagging suspicion that by publicly admitting
enjoyment of this book one is going to be ostracized forevermore as a
confirmed airhead.

The Seven Habits

One of Covey's ideas is that everyone goes through three maturity stages:
dependence, independence, and interdependence. I discuss this more in the
perfect employee document, but the new idea is
that reaching our so-American ultimate achievement of adult independence is
not the be-all and end-all after all. We have to then learn to work with
others to achieve goals beyond the means of any single individual. Obvious
when said right out, but I've never really thought about it so explicitly
before.
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Covey then lays out how his 7 habits fit into this maturity scale, using the
following drawing:

THE SEVEN HABITS PARADIGM

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This typically self-helpish hokey-looking figure is a good memory device
for Covey's seven habits.
The idea is that one starts at the bottom, acquires the first 3 habits to
become independent rather than dependent, acquires the next 3 habits to
move to interdependence, then uses the last habit to improve further.

The First Three Habits
The first three habits let you take conscious control of your actions
(so that you can proceed to change your habits, which would otherwise just
form unconsciously in an unplanned way); make you plan what your goals are;
and force you to use strict time management to achieve those goals. Covey
gives plenty of real-life examples and concrete guidance techniques for
each habit, so that the book acts as a concrete how-to guide rather than
just philosophical pablum. For instance, for Habit 3 (on time management)
Covey explain the difference between urgent and important tasks, and how one
can get out of crisis (aka fire-fighting) mode so as to have time for the
really important things.
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The thing is, these really are the key points in organizing one's life
and achieving one's goals. If more people adopted these first three habits,
they'd be happier and more successful. Very simple basic truths, well
stated here.
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Many people reach the independence plateau through application of these
first three habits, and think they've reached the pinnacle of achievement.
Company founders are often at this level; they're super competent in many
areas, have achieved great things, but something seems to be missing in
moving on to a successful company. What's missing is an understanding of
how to work with other people.

The Next Three Habits
The next three habits allow one to work cooperatively, to mutual benefit,
rather than competitively; to improve communication skills to bring out the
best in other people; and to work with other people so that skills complement
and the result is far better than one could do alone. If everyone had these
skills, backbiting office politics would become a thing of the past. People
really can work together to achieve more than they would as individuals, and
this shows how to do it.

The Last Habit
The seventh habit doesn't ring very true for me. The idea is that one can
continually strive to improve, but the great value of the other six habits
is that Covey has worked out in detail a plan that one might never create
for oneself no matter how hard one tries. In other words, the seventh habit
is a platitude rather than a concrete guideline, in comparison to the others.
Or who knows, perhaps I'm just not at a maturity level to appreciate it yet.

It's a Management Book, Too

Covey's ideas are offered as a way to achieve one's personal goals, but the
spillover into one's business life is unavoidable. These habits will
unavoidably cause one to become a leader first of oneself, and then of
others. Reading this book will not turn you into a
manager against your will, but the inner direction these habits supply one
do prove attractive to others who haven't yet achieved such direction. In
other words, it'll make you a leader, not a manager.
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To quote Covey quoting Drucker, "Management is doing things right; leadership
is doing the right things." As John Walker
mentions, good executives lead, poor ones simply manage and should stick to
lower levels of the company. But again, we're not talking about a pathway to
getting large salaries and bossing around groups of people; becoming a leader
in one's own life is the most valuable aspect of leadership; ability to
lead others is a consequence you may choose to employ or not, as best fits
your life goals.

Why This Appeals To Me

The ideas herein are what I've been trying to formulate for myself for years.
I have some of these habits in a hit or miss fashion, and now with Covey's
chart as a roadmap I can buckle down and try to adopt these habits more
consistently. I've gotten far enough along this road to see that this is
a pretty good description of the philosophy I'd have developed for myself
in another couple decades.
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But I can't help but be honest in saying that the real appeal of this book
is that it could act as a manual for those other people I encounter who are
just starting on this journey. I come across so many people at the first two
plateaus, and I haven't been able to phrase for them my ideas about how they
could improve. If everyone I work with adopted these habits, we'd achieve
a lot more and would have a better time doing it. There's no downside,
either; these are ideas that make one a better human being who can get
more done on all fronts. Strong and even fanatical sounding words, but I
really believe it; and after all what would a self-help book be without
a life-changing message?